Hunter
by Raven-Chan1
Summary: 2 years after Meteor, life is going back to normal, or as normal as can be excepted. AVALANCHE has debanded, but they still keep in touch. Now, some evil plans to tear them apart, one by one. But what is it?
1. Hunter: Chapter One

Hunter: Chapter One (Yuffie)

By: M.Riddle AKA Raven-Chan

...

As Yuffie fell into silence, They all looked up, as if hearing her distant scream. They all looked in the direction of Wutia, as she fell into the dreaded silence. A shiver ran down Tifa's back, and goose bumps raised on her flesh, as if frightened of something she couldn't see. The same happened to the rest of the group, and although none of them would remember later, they all knew Yuffie had slipped into a place worse then death. She wasn't in the life stream. She was just dead...

...

It was 9:00 PM.

Yuffie was sitting at her home in Wutai when it started. She was sitting on her couch, watching an episode of her favorite television program.

Tifa had been in her home. She was half-heartedly eating some of the pie she had made for her and Cloud to share that night... on their second date.

Cloud was quickly running to Tifa's house, knowing he was already late because the roses he bought had not been delivered. He had dropped by the florists' shop to get them.

Barret had been tucking Marlene into her bed for the night. Both of them would have nightmares on this last night they slept.

Red XIII was tending to a small garden in front of the house where his Grandfather had lived, looking at the blossoming stars.

Vincent had been roaming the mazes under Shinra Mansion, looking for nothing, but wishing Lucrietia was with him.

Cait Sith had been powered down for a while, while Reeve was out in the town, walking into the Mall of Midgar.

Cid had been flying around in the Highwind, looking at the lay of the land.

They had all looked up when it started, too, although Cid was the only one to see it happen. When the Chain Reaction started, they all looked up, and cringed at the screams. The screams from the Life Stream, hundreds of souls in mortal pain. One that struck Cloud in particular was Aeris' scream, her voice high and shrill.

Cid saw all of it from his place in the Highwind. He was flying solo (something he rarely did). He had a sudden urge to take off into the wild blue yonder, to forget it all... or, he would think later, to see it all come crashing down.

He had been flying in no direct path to any one place, only flying, enjoying the views the open sky afforded him. He had decided to fly over the rubble that used to be the Temple of the Ancients before he headed home, wanting to see it again. He had no idea how bad his timing was.

As he passed over the site, he looked down, hoping to admire all of its beauty. As he got closer, his instruments began giving strange readings, the needles jumping back and forth, the digital displays going tucking off random shapes and numbers, some flashing on and off.

"What the fuck? " he muttered to himself, thinking he must have rebuilt the damned thing wrong after all. Then, as he reached the spot he thought most beautiful on the island, he saw something that shattered his previous good mood.

Where there had been the rubble of a mighty temple, glittering like gold, surrounded by beautiful green forest, was nothing but fire. A twisted, black fire, sweeping through the island and spawning off electric surges of evil black energy. Where the rubble of the temple used to be, a swirl of black and gray had burst through the ground, and in the middle, stood a dark temple. It wasn't a golden temple, something the Ancients would have made. Rather, it was a dark, twisted, morbid temple, a tower that reached for the sky and sought to polluter it with the darkness of death.

"What the fuck?!" Cid yelled into the emptiness of the cockpit.

As he ranted inside the otherwise silent cockpit, the winds outside grew violently fast and turbulent, the fire reaching heights that licked the belly of the Highwind. As it rose higher, so did the energy that sparked through it. It began to surge through the cockpit, burning out navigations and damaging every console in the cockpit. Relays popped, and the acrid smell of smoke hung thick in the cockpit.

"Fuck!" Cid screamed, struggling to gain more altitude, although his efforts were futile. The engines had been fried by the energy surge, and the only direction Cid was going was down.

As Cid fought for control, and actually thought he might make it out alive, something shot out of he whirl of black and gray, straight at the cockpit. Cid had enough time to swing the large ship around to avoid sudden death, but the thing sliced through the port side of the ship. Cid looked at the aft display monitor, and saw the thing turn back for another pass.

It was something pitch black, like a shadow, with only one other color in its whole mass: green. They were eyes, Cid realized, a startling green color that seemed somehow familiar.

Cid powered the engines as high as they could go, over loading the circuits that were not already fired. He hit the throttle hard, and the Highwind bucked and groaned in protest; the entire left side began to come off of its frame, the structure of the mighty ship falling apart. The metal began to peel away from the ship; the wiring and pipes began to hang out loosely, and then began peeling off as well, being sucked into the massive vortex made by the emerging tower.

The black creature didn't care to dodge the pieces; it just went through the. It was closing on the Highwind now, moving in on its paralyzed prey. Cid realized then exactly what was happening; it was a Hunter and he was the prey.

His burst of speed was slowly but surely rattling the Highwind apart. He was near Rocket Town when the though occurred to him that this Hunter may destroy his town, as well as his Highwind. He began to change course, and as he did the Hunter peeled off, shooting off and into the night. Cid tried to change course and make a smooth landing outside of Rocket Town, when he realized something else had been fried.

The steering.

"Oh, shit"

As he braced for an impact with the planet below, the Highwind pitched downward, into Rocket Town. Cid braced himself back into his chair, finally strapping himself in, as he should have done at the beginning of his flight. The left side of his ship was gone now, and the frame was badly and irreversibly warped. The lack of weight on its left side cause the ship to spin as it fell from the sky, and it hit the ground behind his house with a loud crash, the nose of the ship digging into the ground. The left side of the cockpit caved in, and the Highwind came to a rest in a standing position, and odd parody of the Shinra-26.

Cid's head flew forward, hitting the control panels. Blood squirted from his nose and mouth as he impacted the console. Water streamed from his eyes, mixing with the blood on the console. The pain felt like a comet crashing into his face. His head jerked back fast enough to cause whiplash, and when his head hit the seat he let out a grunt of pain.

Cid drift into the darkness of semi-consciousness, the pain dulling slightly and then dove into a pool of dark unconscious. The dark was filled with nightmares. It would be three hours before he awoke from the dreaded nightmares to the horrors of the real world.

...

Yuffie was sitting in her home, still watching her favorite television program (altough it was a rerun, and almost over) while Cid was going through the horrific experience of meeting an instruments panel head on. The program was almost over, and she was wondering whether to take a shower or get a snack fist, and decided the food should come first. She stood up and walked into the kitchen. The wind outside had picked up terrible, and the howling sounded almost human.

Yuffie had wished that the wind wasn't so damn loud. It seemed to scream at her, as if screaming a warning. She had quickly pushed that thought aside.

There was a loud crashing sound outside, and Yuffie stopped and looked up from the process of searching the fridge for food. Her father wasn't home, and at first she thought it might be him. She went back to looking through the fridge. She was interrupted again when the door in the front room began to rattle.

"Who's there?" she hollered, her voice edgy. She remembered slightly her father saying he was supposed to be out for at least tonight. He wouldn't be back until at least early morning. Despite the fact that all she was wearing was a pair of shorts and a bra, she ran to her room and grabbed her shuriken. This might be trouble.

"Who's there? Answer me!" She screamed at the door, but the hinges only rattled on, more and more, screeching with the wind. "Who the FUCK is there? Answer me! Who the fuck are you?"

With this final scream, the door shattered inward. Splinters flew across the room at high speed, one puncturing her left eye, causing it to quickly deflate. Screaming in her pain, and even though her was deflating, Yuffie realized that the door wasn't off its hinges; there was just a fist stuck six inches through the door. It was black like tar, and it had shattered a hole in the door. The fist left through the hole it had made, and Yuffie thought for a brief but hopeful moment that it was leaving. Then it shoved both its hands through the door and began to pull it apart from the inside. The door shattered, and Yuffie jumped backward, striking a fighting pose, ready to do battle. The pain in her eye was nearly forgotten in the red battle fog that fell over her conscious mind.

The creature stepped through the door, and Yuffie realized its full horror. The thing stood no less than seven foot tall. It was pure black, and made Yuffie think of a shadow. A shadow of death. It had two huge clawed hands, and a cape of total black. There were no lines where one part ended and another part began. The only feature that wasn't black was its eyes. Piercing green eyes that seemed distant and familiar.

Through her pain, Yuffie screamed, "I don't know what the hell you are, but I'm giving you fair warning to get out of my house!!!"

What happened next surprised Yuffie, yet made her strangly comfortable at the same time. And it somehow increased her already maxed out fear and pain. It spoke to her, not audible, but somehow with a thought and she somehow knew it had been directed from the creature toward her.

"I'm here for you," the things thoughts hissed, "I have come for your soul."

The last thing that it said surprised her more than scared her, and she changed footting for a better striking position. If wanted a piece of her, it had to go through her shuriken first.

"Fine then! Have it your way!" She said, a little to defiantly, trying to hide her elevated pain from the thing. "Your goin' to wished you'd never messed with the great Yuffie!"

Somehow, the Hunter smiled with its eyes. It held up one of its shadowy hands, two fingers up. Bring it on, he motioned with his fingers. So she did.

She jumped, flipped, and brought the shuriken straight through the Hunter. The weapon quite literally passed through it and made her body tingle all over, like her legs did when they often feel asleep, and her left eye socket burned with a more intense pain, making her grimace. She fell straight through the Hunter as if he wasn't even there. She caught herself from hitting the ground, flipped into the air, and landed on her feet. She turned to face the Hunter, thinking that she would have to use Materia to destroy it. It was probably a dark spirit.

But when she turned, it was gone. Before she could turn back around, the Hunter had grabbed the arm that held the shuriken, and twisted it backward. Yuffie felt the extreme pain as it dug its claws into her skin, ripping the flesh and muscle from her bone, her blood flowing from her arm. He forearm had an odd tickling sensation which she had the most insane urge to scratch. Then she realized the itching was the ribbons of her own flesh brushing against what was left of her arm. She dropped the shuriken, no longer able to feel her arm. She heard the bone and cartridge cracking, giving way. More flesh ripped away, blood spraying. The bone and cartridge finally gave way, and her arm gave free, a short stub hanging from a defunct socket.

More blood flowed out, and the pain hit her like hammer. She stumble, her one good eye blurred with pain that made her left eye socket feel like a scrapped knee in comparison. She seemed to be floating away from reality.

The Hunter transported behind her. It grabbed her roughly with its hands, thrusting its claws through her back and throwing her to the ground. She lay in her pain, clutching he now defunct right arm. She had nothing left in her to fight it. She rolled onto her back, her face tilted up toward the creature, and spit on it with all the energy she had. She then lay back, and resigned herself to whatever death it had in mind for her.

It put knee firmly against her rib cage, and put it huge claws under her head, firmly around her neck. It began to pull up against her head, pulling the neck and the body apart. She heard the cracking of her own spine, the ripping of her flesh, and welcomed it as relief from the pain of her missing eye, her missing arm, and the gaping holes in her back.

"Don't worry," the Hunter told her, "It will all be over soon... "

She realized she knew that voice. After a brief instant she realized it had spoken using her own voice.

And as if to give finality to the thought, the Hunter gave a firm jerk of his claws, ripping her head off of her shoulders. Some of her spine came out of her body as well, and blood began to stain the throw rug her body was lain on. The body twitched madly for a moment, the lay still, blood spewing from the gaping wound were a neck once was.

As Yuffie's soul exited her body, the Hunter summoned it to him, pulling her soul into his dark body of souls. Her soul let out a final scream, for she now realized her physical pain was only the beginning of her tormentm and now she had no body to fight it. The scream peeled away from her soul, and the scream was heard by all the other members of AVALANCHE.

With his work here done, and Yuffie's soul now in his possesion, the Hunter walked from the small shelter where empty shell lay dead, a shell that should have contained the soul of a celebrated heroine, the great Yuffie of Wutai.

He began to float in the air, and flew off in the direction of Rocket Town.

The night was still young and dark, and the harvest of souls was ripe for the picking. Cid Highwind seemed to make a good target for the second of the AVALANCHE prey.

...

As the night grew on, the process of events that Cid had seen earlier that night began again, this time localized around the Wutia area. The area became corrupt with evil, becoming new territory for the Hunter.


	2. Hunter: Chapter Two

Hunter: Chapter Two (Cid)

By: M.Riddle AKA Raven-Chan

...

It was past midnight when Cid Highwind woke up from his unconscious state. He had been experiencing unreal nightmares, visions of what he had seen earlier that day. Except in his dreams it was after him. It was hunting him, like helpless prey; it stalked him. When Cid awoke, he had sweat running down his face, covering his body. Blood and mucus were dried around his nose and mouth, the aftermath of the collision he had had with the run away moon he dimly remembered was his navigations console. And the console itself was screwed to hell. He had no idea what had happened to Yuffie, and in his state, he didn't care. He had no idea that in less then two hours, everything surrounding him would be gone. He heard something move, a rumbling in the corridor, and he felt it. He felt the beginning of the end coming.

...

It was past 1:00 AM now.

Cid was running from a nightmare, but not one of sleep, but one of the real world. In only a few moments, he would be killed by his nightmare.

Tifa and Cloud had already finished their meal, as well as what was left of the pie, and were now watching a movie, more or less, but mostly they sat on the couch, curled up together and making love.

Barret was tossing and turning in his bed. In his nightmare he was shooting everything he had into darkness, hitting nothing. It was the darkness hitting him, and Marlene was having much similar dreams of the darkness in her own cold bed.

Red XIII hadn't been able to sleep the whole night. Something was terribly wrong, and he didn't like it one bit. The Planet was in danger, as well as its people.

Vincent was still aimlessly roaming around the Shin-Ra Mansion, now totally absorbed in his longing to have someone with him, anyone. Perhaps one of his old AVALANCHE friends, their adventures retold over the strong black coffee he and Cloud often shared on cold mornings.

Reeve had moved from the Mall, which was now closed to the Bumble Bee Inn, checked into one of their most luxurious suites and bedding one of their finer girls.

As everyone was doing their own thing, whether it were sleeping or a conscious action, they would feel the cold chill go up their back, short, calm shivers running through their bodies. As Cid fell into the dreaded silence, they would all hear his scream, and they would never know it had happened, until it was for them the silence tolled.

...

When Cid heard the noise from the corridor he couldn't help but remember. Remember the dreams. Remember what he had seen. He thought maybe it had decided to come after him after all. Maybe he wasn't home free yet.

He began to get out of his seat, and realized two things. The first thing he realized when he began to stand up; he was still fastened into his chair. When he realized that, he hurried to get out of the restraint. He was becoming afraid of the noise. As he got the last restraint off, the other thing hit him; the Highwind was standing on its nose, and he was not known for defying gravity. He fell from his chair straight down. He screamed, and reached out, grabbing a jutting pipe from shear luck, which he grasped and held for his life. He was too old for this sort of thing, he thought. As he began to feel that he could pull him self up, he heard more noise. A rumble, then a crash of equipment. And it was much closer. It ran past him, and broke out the window in the front of the Highwind.

Something was up there.

He began to let himself down slowly, looking for something else to hold his weight. If only he could make it to that busted window.

As he thought this, the thing threw its head out over the edge. He could barely see its pitch black against the light, black and gray shades behind it. Its eyes were glowing a piercing green.

"I've found you," it seemed to say, speaking inside his mind, and he was sure it was the creature and not just his imagination. "Soon," It hissed, evil and low in his mind, and he knew at that moment it would jump on top of him and rip him limb from limb. He didn't quite like that picture, so he let go of the handle.

He fell, watching the eyes glow as he fell the rather short distance. But how far it did seemed to him. He was aiming for the edge of the window, were all of the glass shards would be at the bottom. From there he would climb down the side. Tonight was a good night for climbing, he thought ludicrously to himself.

He had no such luck as to land on balance. He hit the window's edge, and heard the cracking of his ankle. His ankle had shattered into five pieces, twisting, and when the edge of the pain hit him it was brutal and horrible. As he fell, he cared nothing for the ground that was rushing up to meet him. The only thing he cared about now was his ankle. The pain was all too much like death, and even though he didn't know that yet, he would soon.

The only thing that saved him was pure luck. His foot caught on a piece of metal sheet. It had peeled off in the crash, obviously. His foot caught for only a second. Of course, like all good things, there was some price. Of course his bad ankle had to get caught. It tugged for the second he was there, pulling it apart even more, and he screamed at the agony as the metal's edge cut through his ankle, severing his Achilles' tendon and causing a torrent of blood to come flowing from his ankle. Then the sheet metal peeled off with Cid, and they both fell to the ground. Cid landed, and it was to his surprise it was somewhat cushioned. The sheet metal landed near by, on end; it would have impaled him if it had landed on him.

He began to push himself upward with his hands, and the pain jolted through his ankle again. He looked under him, and saw the cushion clearly now. It was Peter Redman, on of his townsmen. Peter was dead, lying in a pool of blood. He had been impaled with some kind of spike, at least twenty times by the look, leaving a gory mess of barely recognizable flesh in a blood puddle on the ground. Cid thought of meatloaf in ketchup, mashed and mixed by a fork. He lost a brief battle with his stomach, and lost the supper Shera had fixed him earlier, splashing it on the face of the deceased townsman. Cid threw himself backward with his hands, not feeling the pain in his leg anymore, the shock of seeing the body of Peter washing it away momentarily. He leaned his head to his left, and lost the rest of his dinner. After a moment, it was reduced to dry heaves that racked his body, and then to a low but bearable gagging.

He stood up now, balanced only on his good leg, barely capable of coherent thought. The pain was sharper and more defined, but he was more concerned with the bodies.

Men ranging from their late teens to mid 70's littered the ground, dead by whatever means killed Peter. It looked as if though they had been searching the Highwind, for him perhaps. But, oddly, there were explosives attached to the hull of the ship. He saw his house, and began to hobble toward it, steering clear of the bodies of the people had had liked and governed and, in some cases, loved. He was going about the speed of his normal walk, his house at least fifty yards away. After ten yards, he heard a large thump, and that was all he needed to put it together.

The creature had killed them all. The people may have started by looking for him, but after finding the creature they quickly decided that losing Cid was a justified loss if they could rid themselves of this monster. And it was after him now. He looked back for just a second, and that was all the motivation he needed. It was behind him, walking, but fast enough to catch him if he didn't start moving faster.

He began walking faster, or at least attempting it, and that itself was a struggle. When he was only five yards from his house, he felt it behind him. It had caught him. He kept moving though, trying for more speed. Then heard a razor edge swing behind him, and his back opened.

Blood began to pour out of his back, and he felt his insides jostling toward the opening.

He had reached the door now. He opened it, slipped in quickly, and slammed it in the Hunter's face. He leaned against the door to rest for a moment before arming himself.

As soon as he leaned himself against the door, a spear of blackness shot through the door, and straight through Cid's left shoulder. Cid screamed in agony, and pushed himself away from the door, pulling himself of the spear and allowing a fresh wound to bleed. He held a tentative hand over his back, holding his own entrails inside. He stumbled to the kitchen, and saw Shera. He heard the tea brewing. She was sitting in her normal place at the table, as if she had heard nothing.

He hobbled quickly toward her, and when he got to her he turned her around to face him. Now he could see what was wrong with her. She was dead.

Her face had been mauled to shreds, and if she hadn't been in his house, he wouldn't have known who it was. He now noticed the blood splattered across the room, saw the blood that stained her shirt and apron, saw the rip that ran the length of her shirt and saw the bugle that was her intestines, squeezing their way from her body. At that thought, as if on cue, the Hunter burst through the door, knocking it down from its hinges. Cid grabbed his lance, ready to fight the Hunter. It barged into his kitchen, and Cid lunged. Ignoring his pain, the shattered ankle and ripped tendon, the flowing spear wound and the slash down his back and, his aching face and extremely shitty day, he lunged at full speed. The attack had no affect.

The Hunter grabbed the lance, tearing it from Cid's hand and braking his fingers and wrist in the process. The Hunter grabbed Cid by the throat, and carried him over to the range top stove, where the teapot boiled ever on. The Hunter ripped off the lid, and shoved Cid's head into the boiling tea.

Cid screamed as the boiling tea engulfed his faced. He screamed into the steaming liquid, the tea filling his mouth and throat and causing blisters, hot and painful, to arise immediately in his mouth. He would have died in a few seconds anyways, if the scream hadn't been cut short by the Hunter. As it held Cid in the air, it turned its other dark hand into a twisted spear, and began rapidly punching it through Cid's body, pulling it out and shoving it through again. He did this twenty times within a span five seconds, then threw Cid's dead, bleeding body across the room, where it lay in the corner, resembling mashed meatloaf and ketchup.

As Cid's soul was drawn toward the LifeStream, it changed direction, and was drawn to the Hunter, absorbed by it. Cid's soul let out a final painful scream, then fell into the silence.

The Hunter left Rocket Town, only looking back to shoot a ball of fire at the defunct Highwind. The fire hit the explosives, and all of Rocket Town was incinerated. The Hunter continued onward on his path of destruction. The night still folded its wings around Midgar, and Barret would soon wake to see that his nightmares were reality.

...

As the ashes of Rocket Town fell on the countryside, darkness spread across the land, as if the ashes were seeds of evil, and what had happened to the Wutai area now was happening to this countryside, The area Cid's soul had protected belonged to the Hunter now, another of his black towers rising like a perverse tree. The monsters rose, and went out in the dark. Now was the time for killing.


	3. Hunter: Chapter Three

Hunter   
Part 3   
By: Raven-Chan 

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It wasn't long after the explosion of Rocket Town sounded across the plains that Barret fell into darkness. It was only a few hours, at that point of night where everything is pitch black, where everything is dark and quiet, when evil lurks about in the shadowy corners of reality. It was when night was at its peak, the point of night when everything was perfectly balanced, night and day, good and evil. Except for the fact that the good was about to lose it's balance, and start an un-versible fall into darkness... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Hunter was on its way to Midgar now. It had things there to take care of. The heart and soul of the good was there. The good that had killed Sephiroth... But had somehow mysteriously and wonderfully created him... 

Barret Wallace lived in Midgar, now on the top of the number 7 plate. After the destruction of the origanal Midgar, The Neo-Midgar project had been pushed forward by the new president of Shin-Ra, Hiddegger, and a staff of eleven other council men and women. Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, and Cloud Strife were among them. They were all in Midgar, and he needed to get rid of all of them... 

The Hunter was in Midgar now, going through the shadows of the streets. A car passed on the road beside him. A cold chill ran through the man who was driving. His wife beside him stirred, as if having a bad dream, and his small child began to cry out in its sleep. The child would die in only six hours, something had mysteriously ruptured in its brain while it slept... 

The Hunter swept through the city, changing the dreams of those asleep to nightmares of deadly darkness. Darkness that came upon them and swallowed them into its darkness of death. One old man had a heart attack as he ran in his dreams, terrified, trying to escape the black death. 

The Hunter was almost to where it needed to be. The heart of AVALANCHE would die tonight, and then he would take care of the reaments of the group that had somehow brought him so much pain, yet so much joy... 

The Hunter was where he needed to be now. The Hunter would have Barret soon. Barret would be with his friends, Yuffie and Cid, very soon... 

The Hunter rounded the corner of the house with his liquid movement, and scared a small ally cat half to death. The cat ran through the Hunter, hit a pyramid of tin barrels, and then dropped dead. The barrels collapsed, and he sensed something in the house wake from its sleep. It was small, but it would still be okay. 

That soul, too, would join Yuffie and Cid in the greatness... that soul to would have a part... 

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It was already 4:00 AM when the Hunter stalked around the corner of Barret's humble dwelling. 

Barret had just been awaken from his last dream to find his worst nightmare slowly unfolding... 

Cloud and Tifa were now lying in Tifa's bed. Tifa was lying asleep beside Cloud, who was awake, pondering what was happening in his life... 

Reeve was still out, having fun around the town, now looking for some more action, after getting kicked out of the Bumble Bee Inn. He was thinking of going to one of the open-all-night bars around Midgar... 

Vincent was now crouched on top of the Shin-Ra Mansion, looking at the night sky. A big storm was about to sweep over the Planet... He could feel it... 

Red XIII was restlessly sleeping in the observitory at the top of Cosmo Canyon. If he had been awake, he would have noticed the storm Vincent felt coming... 

They were all about to be rudely awaken by the death of their mentor, and friend, but most importantly, their leader... 

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Barret didn't hear the large crash outside. Although he was a sound sleeper, it took something very small to wake him up... 

"Daddy!!!" He heard Marlene cry from the other room of the small house. Barret sat up in bed with a quick bolt of action. He was throwing back the covers when he started remembering the nightmares, and how Marlene had awaken him from them and how grateful he was for that, but there was no time for that now. Marlene needed something. She had probably just had a bad dream, or saw a shadow or need a drink of water... 

But Barret knew better. He already knew something bad was happing. He had been the leader of AVALANCHE for a very long time, and even though it may have been a while, he could still smell something bad in the air... And he had a feeling those dreams had something to do with it. 

"Marlene, I'm coming!" Barret looked at the night stand beside his bed, where his gun-arm was now sitting. He had had an operation so that more of his gun-arm could be removed as he slept, then just reattached to its base in the morning. Without a second thought, he snatched it up and began to put it on his arm as he ran toward Marlene's room. 

"Marlene, are you okay?" Barret asked when he had reached the girls room. He finished clamping the last lock on his gun-arm as he talked. 

"Someones going around outside. They knocked over some barrels, and I think it's Sephiroth..." 

The little girl didn't know how right she was, and Barret would usually have found this to be totally crazy except for three things: With the dreams he had been having, it Couldn't have been something he ate, Marlene usually never told any kind of wild story, and the front door sounded like it was about to cone off it's hinges. 

"Marlene, Whatever you do, stay right here! Yo Daddy's gonna protect ya!" 

With that, Barret charged out of Marlene's room, and out into the front room. The door was bowing inward, holding by only three screws. On of these screws flew out about the time Barret realized this, and almost hit Barret in the eye. Then the door its self gave way, and it came down with a crash. When barret saw what he was up against, he had only one idea. 

"Marlene, ran out and get to someone elses house, Quick! Now!" 

Marlene was frightened, and didn't know what to do. She thought she might die, but she had no idea. But she trusted her father, and went sprinting as fast as her little legs could carry her, straight out of the room and straight for the back door. 

Barret was in now postion to be making requests at the time, being face to face with the Hunter, butr he did anyways. 

"Aeris, If you can hear me..." He began to whisper, "Protect my Marlene... Shes all I've got..." 

As he finished, he began ot raise his gun-arm. Heard Marlene trip, but she was almost there, and he would hold this sorry jerk till he was dead. 

THe Hunters' cold glare was fixed on Barret, and he knew inside his heart that he was as good as dead. Then, the Hunter began to speak at him, straight to his mind, and he cringed at it. It sent cold chills through his spine. 

She can't hear you... No one can... Aeris is with me... 

Barret strangely understood what it meant, but wasn't leaving time for that. Barret was beginning to fire at the Hunter, but he Hunter payed no attention to the bullets that were poinlessly flying through it. It was done playing around, and it saw that the little child Marlene was not yet out of the house. It moved past Barret with liquid speed, and Barret turn around to see the Hunter comingdown on Marlene. 

Marlene saw the Blackness come down on her, and the Hunter engulfed her. It began to kill Marlene, Turning its arms into long, killing spikes, and shooting them through her at lightening speed. 

"DADDY!!!" Barret heard Marlene scream. It was the scream of the dying. He had heard it before. But he was to shocked to do anything. When the Hunter pulled away after a few seconds, what was left was not recognizible as a little girl. It looked as if though Marlene had thrown a bowl of spagetti on the floor, except she was the spagetti, and her blood and intestines and all of her insides were lying sprawled across the floor. Her blood was running everywhere, and now Barret became inraged. He began firing all of his bullets straight at the Hunter, but it was no use. The bullets were flying straight through it, scarring up the walls. 

The Hunter moved toward Barret now, not as fast as usual, but at a good speed, and when he was right upon Barret, he heard Barret's cursing over the sound of his gun... and he saw the tears... 

"Ya sorry Mother Fucker! Marlene was all I had in this world!! Your goin' die!! Ya Hear!!!" 

The Hunter payed no attantion to this, and turned one of its huge hands into a ripping claw. It slashed at Barret, and opened his stomach wide with the claws. Barret stopped shooting just in time to catch his intestines as they spilled out all over the floor. Barret fell over, holding th gapping hole his stomach used to rest in. The Hunter bent down, reached straight into that hole. 

Without a hesitation, it grabbed hold on Barret's heart, and ripped it striaght out. Barret began shaking wildly, and after a moment, lyed still. The heart of AVALANCHE had been silenced. 

The Hunter stood over his body, and as his soul left him, the Hunter took it, And Barret's soul screamed out as it joined Cid and Yuffie's in the darkness... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

With the Hunter work done here, he needed to move on. Another soul was waiting there. The soul of a man named Reeve... and before the night turned to day, his soul would join those of Cid and Yuffie and Barret and so many others... 

He would join the darkness... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

As the Hunter left the house of the now passed Barret Wallace, something began to happen, far away from Midgar. The small community of Corel was over-taken by darkness. Mt. Corel and all of the surronding area was sweeped up onto a terrible darkness. Storms of darkness and death, like those that had happened in the areas of Rocket Town and Wutia, began to bring death across that land. Now the land Barret's soul had protected was part of the Hunters playground... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hunter Created by Raven-Chan   
Final Fantasy 7 copyright of SquareSoft 


	4. Hunter: Chapter Four

* * *

_Hunter_

_Part 4_

_By: Raven-Chan_

* * *

"Hey, man!" The bouncer of the Midgar Bar and Grill was bellowing at Reeve. "Get your sorry white ass of da bar's property! Your disturbin' every fuckin' person in the bar!" 

Not 30 minutes after getting kicked out of the Bumble Bee Inn, he was getting kicked out of one of the finest bars in town. Reeve started thinking of how stupid, high, drunk or all three of the above, someone had to be when they had decided that a guard at a bar was to be called a 'bouncer'. Thinking of this in his intoxicated state, Reeve couldn't hold back the bellow of laughter he felt coming. 

"You laughin' at me, Ya White Trash!?" The Bouncer bellowed in his normal loud voice. The bouncer was a huge man. His arms were as big around as canned hams, and he had the look on his face that he was gonna use them. But no worry for Reeve... 

"Ya know," Reeve retorted to the bouncer, "This is my favorite bar. I don't think you know who I am, because-" 

"I don't care who the 'ell you are!" The bouncer hollered into Reeve face. 

"You will in a minute, friend..." Reeve replied, pulling a small cylinder from his jacket pocket. 

"Is that a threat, you sorry fuck-shit!!!" retorted the man, "Cause if it was, you in for a bad beatin'..." 

"As a matter of the fact," Reeve began to say coyly, clinching the cylinder in his hand, "It was." 

Reeve tightened his grip suddenly, activating the cylinder. Both ends shoot outward, forming a staff about two meters in length. It came to sharp points at both ends. He jumped in the air and flipped, just as a huge fist went shoting past where he was not a second earlier. He landed and turned sharply, only to see a huge fist right before it smashed into his face. He went sprawling backward, one of his teeth tearing from his mouth in a jolt of pain. Streams of blood squirted from his mouth and nose as he sprawled through the air. He landed hard on the pavement down the dark alley beside the bar. The bouncer closed the small gap with two steps, and was about to kick the sorry white trash. But Reeve was never known to lie down on the job. 

Reeve jumped straight up, pulling his staff straight around with him. The mans foot kicked into empty air, leaving just enough space for Reeve's plan. Good. 

As he twisted around, he shot his arm outward with all his might, aiming for the open spot the bouncer had neglected. In the two seconds it was taking the huge bouncer to get his balance, Reeve thrust his staff between the mans legs with a hard thrust. It dug straight into the man's flesh, ripping it apart with a gross fleshy sound, and Reeve was assure that this man would never have the chance at having any kids. 

The huge man lost what balance he had as Reeve gave a hard jerk to rip the man's flesh apart even more, and the man fell, holding his croutch and bellowing into the night in agony. Blood was running, soaking the crotch of the man's pants, running between the man's fingers, seeping onto the side walk. The man bellowed and bellowed, and Reeve thought of how painful it must have been for the man. 

And then he turned, smiling at the screams of the man's agony. 

* * *

It's had only been 30 minutes from the time Barret had fallen into the darkness until the Hunter had found Reeve, and was ready to make him join the Darkness... 

Cloud was getting dressed to leave Tifa's house. He felt guilty, leaving her in her bed alone, as she looked so much like an angel when she was asleep. But something important had come up. They had told him to get to Head Quarters as soon as possible. He bent and gave Tifa a small kiss. From her sleep she murmured,"Cloud... I..." and that was all. He left, not knowing it would be the last time he saw her. 

Vincent was still on top of the Shin-Ra Mansion, looking out at the strom that was coming still closer, and closer, and he knew it would take them all. And when it came for him, he would once again be the silent warrior, and fight it to his death. 

Red XIII had awoken in the night, sleepless, and for some reason could not help that all the good in the world was gone. He felt that something had just... fell... and now he was the only on to fight the storm... The storm he felt coming... 

* * *

Reeve had turned and began walking down the alley. He had had a long night, and he was planning on crawling into his nice warm bed, not bothering to undress, and sleep until about 6:00pm that evening. It was, after all, an off day for him. No need to go to work. Just sit at home and 'chill'. 

Of course, these were his plans before he had heard the noise at the back end off the alley. 

He turned to see if the man could actually have stood up after having his manhood destroyed. As Reeve saw, though, he was lying still on the ground. He was probably dead. But he couldn't have died that fast, could he?... 

Reeve saw something move in the shadows, and brought his staff back up to attention. He could see no one, though. Only two glowing green eyes. Then, out of the darkness, walked his old friend. Cis Highwind. 

"Hey, Reeve!" Cid said, smiling, "What's a sorry mother fucker like you doin' out this late?" 

"Nothin," come back Reeve reply. 

"That true?" Cid asked, "Cause looks to me like you layed out that big fella over there." He pointed at the man on the ground, and smiled. "What'd he do to you?" 

"You know people 'round Midgar," Reeve started. 

"No," Cid said, "I don't." Cid moved closer, and got a better look at his eyes. They weren't Cid's eyes. Cid didn't have green eyes. And if he did, they weren't like these. These were- 

"Come on, Reeve..." The thing that looked like Cid mocked on. "Tell me." 

These weren't Cid's eyes. They were the eyes of a Hunter... or the eyes of Sephiroth. 

"Good Guess, Reeve!" 

With that, the Cid thing turned into nothing but darkness, and Reeve snapped out of the trance too late to realize that he was gonna die. 

The dark Hunter creature turned one of it's feirce claws into a spear like thing, much like Reeve's, and thrust it right were Reeve's legs connected. Blood squirted outward. The Hunter withdrew the spear, and Reeve fell, holding himself. Blood flowed everywhere. 

_Come on, Reeve_ It mocked in his head. _Get up. Your a man, aren't you... or did I just change that._

The Hunter reached out its arm, and picked up Reeve by his head. He then went through a disgusting motion, and within a matter of second, Reeve had been ripped to shreads, and his soul had joined Barret and the other in the creatures being. 

* * *

As Reeve was being killed at the rise of the sun, it's bright rays of light touching the Golden Saucer for a moment, a black mist sweeped over the plains. It engulfed the desert, and the Golden Saucer. It overtook the whole region, enlarging the Hunter's playground. And as it stood, all but Cosmo Canyon and the small Mt. Nibel and the town of Nibelheim were left on that continent. Only they held the continent from the Hunter's black storm... 

* * *

_Hunter Created by Raven-Chan_


	5. Hunter: Chapter Five

iuHunter/u   
brPart 5/i   
hr   
  
pIt wasn't long after Barret fell into darkness that Cloud got his first glimpses of the demon...   
  
pVincent was perched on the roof of the Shin-Ra Mansion, waiting for the inevitable Storm to come...   
  
pRed XIII was still sleeping, uneasy, as dark dreams filled his head. He had know idea these dreams would soon become his reality...   
  
pTifa still lay asleep in Cloud's bed, not knowing that she would never spend another night with Cloud...   
  
pAnd so Cloud walked on, knowing none of these things. Soon, he would wish he had.   
  
hr   
  
pCloud walked along the almost lifeless streets of Midgar. He didn't know what was happening, what would be happening. All he knew was that something at the lab was going terrible wrong. And they wanted him back at headquarters for something else. Cloud had no idea that everything intertwined into one hell of a nightmare. All he knew was that he was waking down a lifeless street in the early hours of the morning, ten minutes walk ahead of him to the next train station that would go to AVALANCHE/Midgar HQ.   
  
pCloud had a lot on his mind. How in two years Midgar had been rebuilt. AVALANCHE worked side-by-side with Midgar. They no longer needed Mako energy. Some other kind of power was being used. God knows what those scientists had thought up.   
  
pCloud was a man who ran on instinct. He had things to do, places to go, a reaction for almost everything, and a clear head to think things through. But he took most things on instinct. And when walking by the small shop right outside of the train depot, he stopped. Instinct had grabbed him.   
  
pi'Tarot'/i the sign proclaimed on the wooden sign that hung above the door. Cloud had know idea what the fuck i'Tarot'/i was, but he was determined he was going to find out. He decided later that he wished instinct would just go fuck itself.   
  
hr   
  
pCloud had made his way into the small building (More like a large one room hut then anything) only a few seconds earlier. The scent of incense was poignant in the air, and the torches that lit the room gave it an eerie glow. He was getting a royal case of the creeps. He had come through the door into a small lobby. The lobby had been dark, except for one torch above. The room was polished hard wood, and Cloud had never seen a room that was so small, eloquent and creepy all at once.   
  
pHe walked through the passage way that lead from the lobby to the main room. It was merely a door frame, the same polished wood. Beads of dark blue, purple, and black hung down, blocking the doorway. Cloud pushed them away and stepped silently forward.   
  
  
  
  
pThis room was bigger. It was four times the size of the lobby. There were two torches on the walls to his right and left. There were also torches on either side of the doorway he had just passed through. There was a huge block of polished wood in the middle of the floor, that came down on each side in steps, making it look like a polished wood pedestal. There was purple silk over top of this, and silk wadding and pillows on either side of the pedestal. There was another beaded doorway beyond this.   
  
pThe beads to the other doorway moved, and Cloud felt he didn't want to be here. He wanted to be gone from this place, to find out whatever the hell it was that had gone wrong out at Head Quarters.   
  
pThen the beads were parted, and a woman who couldn't be any more then half Cloud's own height, came out from between them. She wore a dark purple robe that covered her entire body, and pooled around her feet. The hood was pulled over her head, and he could see nothing of her features. He couldn't even tell that it was a woman until she spoke.   
  
p"Sit down, young man," She said in her cackling old voice. "I sense you come with a burden on your mind?"   
  
p"Yes." He felt the words slip from his mouth, as if something had muttered them from inside him, rather then them being muttered by he himself.   
  
p"Yes, yes. I knew it," She said more then kindly. "Sit down, young one. I usually charge for readings, but I think I shouldn't charge you, young lad."   
  
pCloud was obedient and sat, not responding to the woman's word.   
  
p"Now, the reason for me not charging you lad," She said, "Is that I don't think you're going to like your reading. I don't think you'll like it one bit. And I don't have any use for your money any how." She cackled on.   
  
pCloud felt compelled to ask her what exactly Tarot was. He had somewhere before heard the there where things card Tarot cards, and that they're users had some mystical power with them to tell the future of a person. He needed not ask, as she brought her boney hands out of her robe sleeves, the right hand holding the deck of black backed cards.   
  
p"Now this is my own Tarot deck," She said. "I found that a standard deck didn't suit me. So I fixed in some cards of me own. And I have a feeling I'll need some of these cards for you, lad. Your fate is not a pretty on, but it is a rather long one. I well draw seven cards instead of five."   
  
pCloud now noticed she talked with an odd accent, but did not ask her about it. He watched, mesmerized, as she shuffled the cards gracefully in her old hands. She them put them down in front of her, and flipped the first card off the top of the deck, putting it upside down for herself in front of Cloud so that he could clearly see.   
  
p"The Awakening," She said simply. In the picture, Cloud saw a black silhouette of a man being surrounded back Mako. "He is raised by the breath of the earth raising another. He is an accident of the Planet."   
  
pThe old woman flipped a second card.   
  
p"Death," She said solemnly, "But not for you." Cloud looked in horror at the picture on the card. The picture had the shadow-man on the background, his arms spread wide. In front of him were several bodies. One was the body of his friend Yuffie, her head ripped away from her body. Another body was that of Cid, blood puddling around him from a mutilation of holes in his body. And beside him was Reeves. And beside Reeves was Barret, his daughter Marlene lying in her daddy's arms. The only way he knew it was Marlene was her head. The rest of her was a bloody mess. "Death to those that are close to you."   
  
pCloud wished to leave. But he couldn't. Something magical held him. She flipped the third.   
  
p"Love," The old witch said. The picture was a man and woman, both naked, held close to each other. Cloud thought of Tifa. "Love is the only thing you have, lad. And soon, it will be a bitter-sweet thing."   
  
pCloud sat fixedly, looking at that cards. The woman flipped a fourth.   
  
p"Death," She said in her same, emotionless tone. "But still not for you. This is someone you love more then the others." Cloud could clearly tell he loved this person more. The picture on the card showed Tifa in the foreground. She had been cut open from her neck to about one inch under her belly button. She was covered in blood. Cloud was shocked.   
  
p"This can't be!" Cloud screamed, knowing it would all be true. "It can't be!"   
  
pThe woman ignored, and flipped another card.   
  
p"A Dark Star," The woman said. The picture on the card was that of a small child as it would be in a woman's womb, in front of a blazing star. The young child, whom should be still growing in its mothers womb, seemed lifeless. "A child destroyed before its time. The lone star of a woman has fallen into darkness barely after its conception." She looked at the card, then up at Cloud. He could see her eyes glowing an eerie yellow.   
  
pShe flipped the sixth card.   
  
p"Death," She said. Cloud was tired of seeming death today. He felt sick. "This is not for you. You still live through the pain." Cloud saw his friends on this card as well. All of them now. Vincent. Red. Tifa. All the others. He even saw Aeris on this card. But she was dead. But had something actually happened at Head Quarters. He would see.   
  
p"This is your final card." She said. She was evil. Cloud knew. She flipped the card. He was expecting to see Death again. He saw something different.   
  
p"Darkness," The woman said. The card was as black as the back of the other cards. Cloud thought that was what it was at first. "Darkness. You will go into the darkness, and face the darkness..."   
  
p"Then what will happen!" Cloud demanded. "What!"   
  
p"You must figure that out on your own. You will travel into the darkness and-"   
  
p"I will not travel into Darkness! I don't want any of this bullshit!   
I'm fucking tired of these games!"   
  
p"That's all it is. A game. But who will win in the end? Who will triumph in the darkness? What will-"   
  
p"I've had enough of this bullshit!" Cloud yelled. The woman was silent. Her head was pointed down.   
  
pCloud watched in horror as blood began to drip from the robe. It dripped and flowed, falling over the purple cloth. The witch cackled madly and threw the hood of the robe back from its face. Its face was the face of Sephiroth, bloody and beaten. The face didn't look human anymore. It didn't look like Sephiroth anymore. Cloud also saw Jenova there. He saw a morbid smile spread across his face. He began speaking and a bubbling voice. It was bubbling over blood.   
  
p"You... You will DIE..." The witch thing said. Cloud had had enough. He unsheathed his sword, and brought it down on the things shoulder. It's right arm fell off. Blood squirted everywhere. And the thing laughed.   
  
p"You can't kill... me!" The thing said slyly. Another arm began to grow out of the mess of the old arm.   
  
p"This... This Can't BE!" Cloud hollered. He brought the sword down again. This time, the sword didn't hit the witch thing before it bounced back at him. It had hit something in the way. And Cloud wasn't waiting to find out what it was. He was off and running. He was out of the building soon.   
  
pHe sheathed his sword, and turned back for a second look at the building. He saw that nothing had been there in the first place. The door was boarded. There were windows now, too, and they were boarded. And The sign that had read i'Tarot'/i was gone. In it's place was a smaller 'For Sale' sign.   
  
pBut on the broken porch stood the thing. Now it looked like Sephiroth. Sephiroth in his black robe.   
  
piI will destroy you,/i it said in his mind. And then it was gone. Suddenly gone. Cloud could tell it really been there. Yes, it had occupied some space. There was a dull 'pop!' like a cap gun when the thing disappeared, as air fell in to fill the space the thing had occupied.   
  
pCloud had been nearly scared pissless. Now he looked to the sunrise. It was now peeking up, its first rays hitting Midgar. Cloud walked toward the sun. And the Tarot cards never left his mind.   
  
hr   
  
Hunter Copyright of Raven-Chan   
brFinal Fantasy copyright of Squaresoft, etc. etc.   
  
hr


End file.
